This is all that remains of OiNK.cd, one of the most prominent music sharing sites on the web. (Source: DailyTech)

Second UK-based piracy closure in less than a week

OiNK.cd, one of the largest BitTorrent destinations for music online, was shut down today in a joint investigation between Interpol, the IFPI, BPI and local authorities in the United Kingdom and Netherlands. Authorities arrested an unnamed 24-year-old man suspected to be the site’s owner, as well as raided his UK residence, the office of his employer, his father’s house, as well as numerous facilities in the Netherlands where the site was hosted.

Much like many of the fallen sites before it, OiNK.cd’s front page was changed to a single message written by an unidentified party: “This site has been closed as a result of a criminal investigation by IFPI, BPI, Cleveland Police and the Fiscal Investigation Unit of the Dutch Police (FIOD ECD) into suspected illegal music distribution.”

Immediately following it is an ominous warning, informing visitors that “a criminal investigation continues into the identities and activities of the site's users.”

According to the IFPI, OiNK was responsible for leaking 60 major pre-release albums in 2007, with an unspecified numbers of albums in years past. OiNK’s estimated 180,000 users financed the site via “donations” paid by credit or debit card, and in return the site continued to host a staggering number amount of music, much of it in high-quality FLAC format.

“This was not a case of friends sharing music for pleasure. This was a worldwide network that got hold of music they did not own the rights to and posted it online,” said IFPI spokesman Jeremy Banks. “Within a few hours of a popular pre-release track being posted on the OiNK site, hundreds of copies can be found further down the illegal online supply chain.”

Comments

Threshold

Username

Password

remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled